Category: Reaching A Higher Level
Being visually impaired is like living in two different worlds, yet not really belonging in either one. We are not totally blind, nor are we completely sighted. Most people categorize us as blind, lump us into one group of people, with the usual misconceptions, and a few added on.
The physical therapy movement at its best is the result a small cadre of men, and women who refused to coincide all of us, to eternal childhood, or drugged isolation.
Against the advice of the experts, they forged ahead.
I would like to tell you, about the one it what my privilege to call mentor and friend for twenty five years.
We don’t need to read statistics to know that getting hired is one of the most difficult areas for people with physical disabilities. Let’s face it, we look different. No, seriously we do. In fact, some of us speak differently, hear differently, see differently, and do things differently. So how in the world can we slide into society unnoticed?
Jean-Francois Lyotard changed world thinking by introducing two new concepts to modern thought. He said the world, and the people living in it, experiences the world through “Grand” and “little” narratives.
Christianity is a grand narrative, so is Marxism – great big concepts trying to provide a framework for everything. But people are not the same, a Christian in Afghanistan experiences life differently than a Christian in sunny California. These different experiences are little narratives, since everyone has a different background, country, family and mind.
Every year, many people make promises to themselves, vowing they’ll set a goal for the new year, and stick to it. As the new year goes by, some achieve their goals, others don’t. Even disabled people do this, including me. Sometimes I fail, sometimes I succeed.
How realistic are these resolutions? How practical and doable are they? Setting goals should be done within the person’s abilities, disabled or not. Achieving goals can be done efficiently and successfully if you have a plan of action and realistic goals.
